


Of Fits and Foibles

by HimsaAhimsa



Category: Lord John Series - Diana Gabaldon, lord john grey - Fandom
Genre: Gen, john grey - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 15:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19253851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HimsaAhimsa/pseuds/HimsaAhimsa
Summary: Lord John's wounds take their emotional toll.





	Of Fits and Foibles

John argued the merits of chess before the magistrate, citing patience and discipline among the virtues the game taught a player. He’d lain forth what he’d believed to be compelling evidence, but the man may as well have had his fingers stuffed in his ears for all his overt insouciance. Notwithstanding, John continued to plead his case vehemently, albeit respectfully, considering his place, offering examples of its benefits on intellect and strategy. To his utmost frustration, however, his testimony went unheeded, and a barrage of questions bisected it instead, demanding answers.

“Why then, my lord, did you fail to discharge Tom Pilchard correctly?” 

The magistrate looked up from his papers and pinched the hinge of his spectacles, wriggling them up to the base of his nose, through which he looked down at John. 

“Indeed,” a second, seemingly faceless voice confirmed. “And furthermore, this ordeal not only stinks of great ineptitude, it has the earmarks of corruption. Are you not related to one Edgar DeVane, Lord Grey?” 

“Hear, hear,” put in a third, from outside his periphery. “His connections to the gunpowder plant alone bear weight enough in this case to condemn him.”

The line of questioning’s irrelevance to chess had almost lost itself to John under the weight of scrutiny and coolness of regard toward him and his testimony, but it remained, if only as a backdrop of confusion. He tried to regain his footing, to proclaim his innocence and expostulate on behalf of his half-brother, to bring about the calling of witnesses and the review of substandard metal samples from the shattered cannon, but even as the gravity of the implications mounted, John found his energy flagging, dangerously so, at odds with his own sense of urgency to plead his case. 

“The committee has decided on the matter,” another voice added, dripping with contempt. 

John’s vision had begun to cloud along with his cognitive reserves, but he could see its source—could make out clearly the face of the man eyeing him with severity. “ As punishment for your crimes of embezzlement and corruption, and for endangering an entire regiment, I hereby impose a sentence of no less than five years’ hard labor in a military prison, my lord. “ Colonel Reginald Twelvetrees leant forward in his chair, sneering. “I think it goes without saying that this will conclude your military career, and I have it on good account that we will also be investigating his grace, Colonel Harold Melton, as well.”

“No, leave him out of this,” John implored, but his mouth refused to comply, the words frozen behind numbed lips.

His footing on the polished stone of the courtroom floor seemed precarious as he scoured his clothing in vain for the bit of shrapnel the surgeon had removed—had he lost it? The fabric at his chest tugged his wounds painfully, and he stifled a groan as Twelvetrees continued lambasting him, addressing him as “Johnny,” in deliberate impropriety. 

“Johnny,” he’d said again, shaking him, but he didn’t remember Twelvetrees’s advance. 

“To the death!” John shouted, and he groped for his sword, but too late. The tip of Twelvetrees’s sword had pierced his breastbone, reopening his wounds. His life’s blood poured out before him, as Twelvetrees threw his head back and hoisted his sword above his head in exaltation. John cried out as he struggled to staunch the flow, blood cascading through his fingertips…

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Johnny!” 

At once, the pandemonium ceased. His eyes fluttered open and settled sluggishly on Hal.


End file.
